The Kingdom
(Riget)
With Ernst-Hugo Jäegard, Kirsten Rolffes, Holger Juul Hansen.
Denmark/France/Germany/Sweden, 1994, 35mm, color, 279 min.
Danish and Swedish with English subtitles.
Originally broadcast as a mini-series on Danish television, The Kingdom is set within the confines of a crumbling Copenhagen hospital where a lurid, demented, baroque, apocalyptic plot unfolds involving ghosts, mad doctors, secret societies, crime, corruption, and cover-ups. The large cast of characters includes an overbearing Swedish neurosurgeon who fulminates against "Danish scum"; his lover, an anesthetist who practices Haitian voodoo; an elderly spiritualist who repeatedly feigns illnesses in order to stay in hospital; a young doctor suddenly suffering a Rosemary's Baby-style pregnancy; various medical black marketers, inept administrators, and love-sick interns; and two Down's Syndrome dishwashers, who function as the work's Greek chorus.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
The Element of Crime
The Element of Crime
Zentropa
Image of Relief
Breaking the Waves
Dancer in the Dark
The Kingdom
The Kingdom II
